Adjuvant activity for alkylamines of immune responses to ovalbumin, myelin basic protein and a tumor

Emulsions of ovalbumin in alkylamines, particularly octadecylamine, were compared with an emulsion of ovalbumin in complete Freund’s adjuvant for ability to induce humoral and cell-mediated immune responses in rats. Under defined conditions alkylamine emulsions induced significantly higher IgG immune responses to ovalbumin, but cell-mediated immunity was not significantly different from that induced with complete Freund’s adjuvant. Emulsions of syngeneic myelin basic protein in octadecylamine failed to induce either humoral or cell-mediated immunity to basic protein and neither clinical nor histologic signs of experimental allergic encephalomyelitis ensued. An intranodular injection of octadecylamine into a solid tumor caused significantly enhanced growth of the tumor despite marked necrosis of tumor tissue at the site of injection.